Introduction

In today’s digital landscape, securing the ever-expanding use of SaaS applications is crucial. Recent events like the McDonald’s global outage caused by a third-party configuration issue and the Midnight Blizzard and Cloudflare-Atlassian cyberattacks highlight the vulnerabilities inherent in relying solely on the security native to a SaaS provider.

As organizations come to terms with these security challenges, the need for robust solutions becomes increasingly evident. Amidst this backdrop, SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) tools act as an essential line of defense. They offer proactive defense mechanisms against security threats by providing comprehensive visibility into the SaaS landscape.

SSPM tools help identify what’s connected to your SaaS environment including shadow IT, detect suspicious activity within SaaS applications, and ensure that configurations are secure. By proactively managing SaaS security posture, SSPM tools can prevent data breaches and other security incidents. Here’s a breakdown of some of the leading SSPM platforms in 2024, each offering unique functionalities:

Reco

Reco is an AI-powered SaaS Security Posture Management platform that provides identity-centric SaaS security. It automates the discovery and inventory of every connected SaaS application, providing full visibility of third-party apps (including GenAI and shadow apps), identities, and their actions and context to effectively prioritize the most important points of risk. Reco’s continuous monitoring identifies suspicious activities and data exposure, and its advanced threat detection sends alerts in real-time of potential security issues to SIEMs, SOARs, and ticketing tools.

It comes with built-in compliance tools to simplify adherence to industry regulations such as HITRUST, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, SOC2, and more. Reco offers a scalable, zero-impact SaaS security solution that seamlessly integrates via its API to ingest all data layers across applications, identities, and metadata. Reco has over 100 integrations with SaaS applications and the Reco SaaS App FactoryTM can launch a new SaaS app integration in 3-5 days. In terms of pricing, Reco is priced per integration, making it a cost-effective choice.

Adaptive Shield

Adaptive Shield follows a holistic Zero Trust Approach, aiming to detect and mitigate threats in SaaS environments continuously. It provides in-depth configuration checks across various SaaS applications, aligning them with industry best practices to avoid malware attacks that happen on using outdated agent versions. Users can see a full list of device vulnerabilities and understand the scope of each issue. Adaptive Shield also provides a step-by-step remediation approach for these issues. The platform’s automation capabilities play a significant role in maintaining SaaS security hygiene and controlling third-party and shadow apps. Adaptive Shield typically caters to large enterprises with a customizable pricing model, making it a suitable choice for organizations with complex SaaS environments.

AppOmni

AppOmni caters to large enterprises with robust features. It is known for its deep visibility into SaaS application configurations, data access, and user activity. AppOmni excels at detecting misconfigurations, data exposure, user activity, and potential threats across your SaaS applications. A risk mitigation engine prioritizes security risks based on severity and potential impact. Its automated capabilities simplify and expedite security procedures. AppOmni’s advantages include its comprehensive coverage of core SaaS applications such as Salesforce, configuration management, and strong automation capabilities. In terms of pricing, it offers tiered pricing and is usually on the higher side.

Netskope SaaS Security Posture Management

Netskope SSPM is a part of Netskope’s comprehensive cloud security suite. It leverages a cloud-native architecture specifically designed to secure SaaS applications. Its Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) functionality provides centralized visibility and control over all cloud activities, including SaaS usage. Netskope’s threat protection safeguards your SaaS environment from sophisticated cyberattacks. Its core SSPM features include misconfiguration detection, automated remediation, and continuous security monitoring for SaaS applications. Netskope’s pricing is competitive, but it can be on the higher end for large enterprises with complex requirements.

Nudge Security

Nudge Security is a SaaS platform known for its unique approach to shadow IT discovery and inventory. It uses patented technology to identify unsanctioned SaaS applications within an organization’s network. Nudge Security excels in securing unmanaged accounts. It integrates this visibility with risk assessment, flagging potential security and compliance issues. Users can audit which accounts do or don’t have MFA enabled and send automatic nudges via email or Slack. The platform’s user interface is designed for ease of use, facilitating quick action on identified risks. It makes conducting OAuth access reviews and auto-revoking risky grants very easy. Nudge Security offers competitive pricing based on the number of users, making it a cost-effective choice for small to medium-sized businesses seeking to address shadow IT and manage SaaS usage efficiently.

Cynet SSPM

Cynet goes beyond basic SSPM with a comprehensive Extended Detection and Response (XDR) platform. With Cynet, you can gain comprehensive visibility across your endpoints, network, and SaaS applications. Its threat analytics help detect and respond to sophisticated cyberattacks targeting your SaaS environment. It prioritizes risks by category and keeps you updated on the status of all potential issues from the Cynet dashboard. Its advantages include ease of use, rapid deployment, and a strong focus on incident response. Cynet offers a subscription-based pricing model with tiers based on the number of endpoints and desired features. Small and medium businesses can address their security needs cost-effectively with this XDR solution.

Obsidian Security

Obsidian Security is a compelling SSPM solution with a focus on threat detection, compliance, and minimizing and protecting the overall attack surface area. It provides posture hardening, integration management, and threat remediation for your SaaS applications. Obsidian Security’s integration and compliance features streamline security operations, making it easier to meet regulatory requirements and protect sensitive data. Its pros include strong integration with identity providers, AI-powered threat detection, and compliance reporting. The pricing is competitive, offering a balance between features and affordability.

Valence Security

Valence Security focuses on integrating advanced remediation with business user collaboration. By addressing misconfigurations, identity, data, and integration risks, it provides risk discovery, visibility and remediation for crucial SaaS applications like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, and more. Valence’s unique approach empowers security teams to work closely with business users, ensuring contextualized SaaS risk reduction and scalable policy enforcement. Its automated workflows remediate the majority of the risk surface, significantly reducing manual efforts for the security teams. Last year, Valence also integrated generative AI and OpenAI into its Collaborative SaaS Security Remediation Platform in the form of the Valence AI Assistant.

Conclusion

As the SaaS landscape continues to expand and evolve, SSPM platforms will play an increasingly vital role in protecting organization’s cloud environments. With advancements in AI, automation, and threat intelligence, we can expect SSPM solutions to become even more sophisticated, offering enhanced protection and greater peace of mind for businesses of all sizes. It is important to select the appropriate SSPM platform based on your individual requirements and security stance. Businesses need to carefully evaluate these leading SSPM platforms to find the perfect solution to keep their SaaS environment secure and accelerate security processes.